Choghadiya Today in Kolkata

Today's Choghadiya for Kolkata — the eight day and eight night periods (Amrit, Shubh, Labh, Char and the inauspicious ones), to pick an auspicious muhurat in your local time.

यह पृष्ठ हिन्दी में पढ़ें

How the Choghadiya periods fall in Kolkata

The day gets eight Choghadiya periods and the night another eight, each an equal division of Kolkata's sunrise-to-sunset and sunset-to-sunrise spans. Their order rotates with the weekday, and because the two spans are rarely equal, a daytime period here is usually a different length from a night one on the same date.

Kolkata's clock versus its Sun

All of India keeps one clock — IST, pinned to the 82.5°E meridian — across roughly 28° of longitude. Kolkata lies at 88.36°E, so the Sun reaches its highest point here about 23 minutes earlier than the clock suggests. That puts solar noon in Kolkata roughly 44 minutes earlier than in New Delhi; sunrise moves with it, though latitude shifts sunrise a little further either way as the seasons turn. Rahu Kaal, Choghadiya and every muhurat are carved out of local sunrise and sunset, so a table copied from a Delhi panchang is wrong for Kolkata by about that much.

Why the lengths change through the year

Kolkata sits at 22.57°N. Daylight here runs to about 13h 23m at its longest and about 10h 37m at its shortest — a swing of roughly 2h 46m across the year. Because the eight daytime Choghadiya periods are made by dividing sunrise-to-sunset into eight equal parts, each period in Kolkata is noticeably longer in summer than in winter. Rahu Kaal, being one-eighth of the day, moves the same way.

How these timings are computed

Timings are computed for 22.57°N, 88.36°E (Asia/Kolkata) with the Swiss Ephemeris: the day's exact sunrise and sunset first, then Rahu Kaal, the Choghadiya periods and the panchang limbs derived from them. Nothing is approximated from a nearby larger city.

Can I use a Delhi panchang for Kolkata?

Not if you want it exact. The solar day in Kolkata runs about 44 minutes earlier than in New Delhi, and every Rahu Kaal and Choghadiya boundary shifts with it. For casual purposes the gap is small; for choosing a muhurat it is large enough to matter.

Why does Rahu Kaal in Kolkata change every day?

Because it is not a fixed clock time — it is one-eighth of the daylight span, measured from that morning's sunrise. Daylight in Kolkata varies by about 2h 46m across the year, so both the start time and the length of Rahu Kaal move with it.

Do these timings depend on my birth chart?

No. Rahu Kaal, Choghadiya and the panchang are properties of place and date — identical for everyone in Kolkata on a given day. A muhurat chosen against your own chart is a separate question and needs your birth details.